These articles offer a significant cross section of basic research being carried on in the field of water-thinnable coatings. They present varied forms of attack on some of the continuing problems encountered by chemists in this area: correlation and control of rheological properties, determination of the complex relationships between physicochemical properties of the basic binder system and the observed characteristics of the final paint film,and utilization of this information to formulate improved coatings. While in a broad sense these problems are common to the coatings industry as a whole, the use of water-thinned vehicles is new enough, and their behavior is different enough, so that the value of attempts to operate by analogy from organic solvent-thinned systems has diminished rather rapidly. The replacment of organic solvents by water as the volatile vehicle removes some problems, such as flammability, toxicity, and odor, from consideration. However, new ones arise to take their place. Control of viscosity, evaporation rate, and even final film properties, which can be effected in organic solution systems by choice of solvents or solvent mixtures, must in a waterthinned system be sought by other means. In short, the necessity for a distinctive approach to water-thinnable coatings exists. The condensations which follow reflect clearly the influence of such an approach.
For the reader who is interested in the complete papers as presented at the 133rd ACS Meeting, San Francisco, Calif., I&EC’s editors have made arrangement for publication in full by the Official Digest, a publication of the Federation of Paint and Varnish Production Clubs, 21 South Broad St., Philadelphia 7, Pa. This symposium will be published by the Official Digesf in February 1959. Shawinigan Resins Springfield, Mass.
HERBERT TERRY
VOL. 51, NO. 2
FEBRUARY 1959
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